Animal holding facilities, known as vivariums, are considered critical environments because of the importance of environmental control for medical research. The stability and quality of the animal’s environment is vital to their well-being and to the integrity and longevity of research.

Room pressure scenarios can be unique for vivariums, because sometimes room pressure needs to be positive, and other times it needs to be negative. The environment is mostly positive on a continuous basis to ensure no contaminants are introduced into the animal’s environment. However, periodic cleaning and decontamination of vivariums requires the space to be under negative pressure to vent airborne decontamination chemicals, such as vaporous hydrogen peroxide (VHP).